Alternative TitlesEnglish: Demon King Daimao Synonyms: Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maō Japanese: いちばんうしろの大魔王
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 12
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 2, 2010 to Jun 18, 2010
Duration:
23 min. per episode Rating:
R+ - Mild Nudity
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.451 (scored by 30419 users)
Ranked: #14412
Popularity: #193
Members: 47,052
Favorites: 359 1 indicates a weighted score
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SynopsisAfter enrolling at the Constant Magic Academy, Akuto Sai discovers he's not just a gifted student with magical powers; he's destined to become the Demon King. And though he's not that crazy about the idea, it drives the girls wild! From the sexy school girls in his class to the skin-obsessed android who's programmed to seduce him, Akuto has no shortage of wacky girl trouble. How much temptation can a demon king take?
(Source: Sentai Filmworks) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Ichiban Ushiro No Daimaou, Ichiban Ushiro No Daimaou
Side story: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou Specials
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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8thSin
38 of 63 people found this review helpful
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12 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
5 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
4 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
Is it just me, or is the playback rate at 200%?
'Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou (The Great Demon King in the Very Back)' is set in an elite magic school where aspiring magicians learn to control their mana. The initial setting is very similar to 'To Aru Majutsu no Index'. One day, a transfer student (Akuto Sai) arrives. New students are required to go through an analysis by the "artificial spirit", which predicts future occupation with 100% accuracy. Surprisingly, the artificial spirit predicts Akuto will become the next Demon King. Once dreamed of becoming the High Priest, Akuto must spend his school life with the burden of becoming the ultimate evil while his true powers awaken, going through one misunderstanding after another.
Story:
I actually found the original setting to be very intriguing. My impression after the first two episodes were... it's good enough that it didn't even have to be ecchi. The setting itself had the fantasy, opportunity for interesting story development, and possible obstacles all built in. It even had a super cool background where Akuto's self-introduction sounded like the real demon king that appeared 100 year ago.
I haven't read the light novel or the manga series, but from the anime, it seems like the title "The Great Demon King in the Very Back" comes from the fact that Akuto was given the seat in the very last row of his classroom. Sadly, the title of this anime series foreshadowed the pattern of story development... You would think Akuto will slowly become a dark presence in the back of his classroom while he tries to clear all the misunderstandings right? Think again. If I'm not mistaken, he hasn't sat in his seat since episode two. And so, the story jumped from one direction to another, random new organizations and villains appeared out of nowhere, and it eventually became mindless fights before the series ended, leaving me completely clueless. It actually got so bad at one point that Akuto threw a monster egg out of a window during breakfast, and the next cut was the crew outside at night in front of the monster egg, which grew exponentially. Really, it's one of those 突っ込み所が多すぎて "I don't know where I should begin pointing out the flaws".
Just like that monster egg, the story seemed to have an exponential acceleration in terms of pacing. The first two episodes had good pacing as introduction of the surroundings. Up until episode 7 was fast paced, but acceptable for slapstick comedy, but the final 5 episodes were packed with random events and explanations that seemed to go on and on without giving the audience time to absorb the story. The characters in the latter half actually started verbally describing the situation, and it wasn't even a deliberate slapstick joke.
I have to say the ecchi element was applied very effectively in this series though. Sometimes ecchi scenes were forced, like repetitive explosions stripping Junko or Keina getting naked every time she becomes transparent, but somehow they were funny every single time. Other ones happen more spontaneously, from skirts too short and creative camera angles that seem to focus on their panties. If there was a cameraman for this show, he was a major perv. This show is probably the closest to hentai category as an under-18 show can possibly get. It goes as far as giving a sea cucumber hand job until it squirts sticky white goo on another girl's face in a certain episode, and "classic tentacle hold" (you know the one I'm talking about if you've even seen an action hentai series) where one tentacle almost goes all the way in.
In the end, the story was a mess, and there were way too many loose ends and question marks unanswered.
Animation:
Extremely inconsistent.
The character designs are very good. Akuto has the obvious "mark of the Demon King" below his eye, but it keeps his appearance somewhat original, and he has that cool look and badass confidence that will eventually attract all the girls and create his harem. The girls are all hot, and there were abundance of fan service. Action scenes are pretty cool, and early episodes had really nice CG effects with magic circles and spectacular spells.
Unfortunately, they try to be "So bad it's actually good" with Brave and villains similar to something out of "Needless" or even "Scryed" about half way, and fails miserably. Monsters attracted by Akuto's powers looked like they're from late '90s demon hentai anime.
Perhaps it was caused by deadlines or budget, the animation quality noticeably degrades as the show go on.
Sound:
Voice acting is decent. All the characters sound like they should, and none particularly annoying. Considering the (presumably) low budget they had, they gathered a decent cast as voice actors.
Music score is disastrous. Although none of the pieces were out of place, the back ground music completely lack originality, and made absolutely no impact to the viewing experience.
OP/ED were average. They fit the series pretty well, but not especially catchy.
Character:
All the main characters were extremely likable, and had unique backgrounds. However, very few of them actually developed as the show had hazardous pacing problems. Junko remained an archetype tsundere to the end, and Fujiko was a SM queen who we don't know if she was a "S" personality who wanted to control Akuto or a "M" personality who wanted to serve under him. I feel Akuto and his henchman Hiroshi were somewhat well-developed, but the pacing made it impossible to pursue such deep issues such as responsibility, justice, morality, and all those things they wanted to explore.
I really liked Korone's character. An android with sense of humor done right is rare, and the character developed as much as an android could in a 12-episode-long series. She was also a very effective comedic device, and I liked how she gave Akuto the hardest time with her sexual approaches.
Enjoyment/Overall:
'Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou' had a great potential to become something special. The show started out pretty strong, and had the slapstick comedy seemed to be working at first, but it was a downward spiral from there. As mentioned many times before, the pacing is far too fast, even for a slapstick comedy series. They tried to pack 20 episodes worth of material into a 12-episode, 1-season long series. Everything seemed to be twice as fast as they should be. I tend to read subtitle as future reference for fansubbing, but I gave up halfway because the characters were babbling nonsense at an absurd rate. Also, if you blank out for 3 seconds, chances are you missed an important explanation of the plot, a cool action scene, or even worse, a panchira.
Perhaps it would've been better if they added some more material and extended to a 2-season long series, but then again, it would've been even longer painful viewing experience unless they made major modifications to the story. Despite the worthless production value of this show, it's an enjoyable series if you shut down half of your brain because the characters had the charm and it offers good laughs from many ecchi jokes and misunderstandings Akuto had gone through in the first half of the series.
I feel the major problem was that 'Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou' tried to be too many things. There was ecchi, comedy, drama, and tried to tackle the issue of right and wrong. The producers should've simply made it an 12-episode long ecchi-driven slapstick comedy, or 25-episode long action drama with a philosophical touch. Not both. read more
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Detective
118 of 197 people found this review helpful
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12 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
6 |
| Story |
5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Character |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
"That's why I decided not to think about anything anymore!"
That's a good one-line summary of this anime taken straight from the last episode. It's safe to say that the enjoyment of this anime is inversely proportional to the amount of plot stuffed into one episode. Simply, the more plot, the less fun. Ichiban is a harem anime. That means it doesn't exist to cater to the brain, and it doesn't. You should be aware that if you're going to watch this anime, then you're watching it for a good laugh, a small smirk, and moments where you can go "Oh Japan!" and laugh at what makes it onto millions of TV sets across seas. You will like the fight scenes, and you will never learn the characters names - you will refer to them by hair color.
Story: 5/10
The demon lord, 100 years ago, tried to destroy humanity. The demon lord was killed and peace resumed, and up until our story begins, nothing as terrible has happened since then. Here our protagonist is introduced, Sai Akuto. His goal is be someone of great authority who will lead people to lead righteous lives (the anime alludes to the Pope). He then meets Hattori Junko, or "the Blue one", and she and Sai hit it off and look like they're going to be great friends. Then a tweest. Sai Akuto is designated by the sorting hat, I mean, the Yata-Garasu, as the future demon lord! Oh no! Blue gets mad, challenges Sai to a duel, then tsundere love kicks into effect and then a robot (Green) comes out of nowhere and an invisible girl gets fingered (Red) all in one episode! Actually, the exposition was pretty awesome and I really enjoyed it... But... It is safe to say, that the plot of the anime was almost nil after the first episode. Eventually we have incestuous sibling love, the power rangers, ninja idols, time travel, pseudo-space and all other kinds of crazy stuff coming into the anime. I understand it's anime about magic where 'anything could happen because we are led into a mysterious world whose limits are not ever revealed' but I would like at least some boundaries. When the mysterious man who is awkwardly introduced tried to rape numerous protagonists with giant sea cucumbers, I could safely say that I no longer took the plot seriously. But that's okay. It's a harem.
Art: 8/10
Think Gurren Lagann fight scenes. Then turn it down a little bit and make sure that there is a lot more OVER 9000 and laser beams and is sped up about fourteen times. You now have a good idea about what fight scenes in Ichiban are like. Animation is superb, art is a little different. The art for me was a little too generic. It felt kind of like fluidity and motion were really nice but left more to desire when someone wasn't kicking ass. If you were to compare this to numerous other harem anime, it just doesn't seem to be much different visually. But that's okay. It has cool fight scenes.
Sound: 7/10
Aki Toysaki does a really awesome job as Soga Keena (Red), but if you don't like her then I recommend turning the volume off, she gets a LOT of screen time, and talks a crap load. Aoi Yuuki (who voiced Mina Tepes from Vampire Bund and Noel from Sora no Woto) had a great voice too. She voiced a monotone character, but did a really job making it sound "not as monotone." I really had no affection toward the OP or the ED. But that's okay. They suited a harem anime very well, and maybe you'll like them because music is a developed taste.
Character: 6/10
I don't know whether to give this a 1 for about a million bland characters, or a 10 for Peterhausen the dragon who shoots fiery drills. The main cast is a pallet of fun (rimshot). Everyone is a different hair color and a different "dere" so they're easy to tell apart! That's where the harem anime has the most trouble in my opinion. A harem has set archetypal characters and refuses to create an original endearing woman. I'm not saying that any woman in this anime is poorly written. Each one is written with her character in mind, but never strays from what the textbook says. Red is an airhead, Etou (Purple) is masochist, Blue is tsundere, and Green is emotionless. All of them can be summed up in one word.
Sai Akuto is on the other hand, a very interesting character. The setting continually sets him up to be a bad guy, but somehow he always manages to do the right thing, whether people know he's doing it or not. The typical male protagonist in a harem always tries to avoid temptation, but without a clear motive as to why. For example, for some craaaazy reason one of the beautiful ladies has appeared in front of our protagonist naked.Our protagonist, who very often envisions this event happening, suddenly has an over-powering urge to avoid any sexually conduct with this woman. BUT WHY? She's beautiful, naked, and right freaking in front of you! This creates character inconsistencies, but where our protagonist differs, is that when he refuses the woman (which alas he does), he is still in character. In summary, Sai Akuto is a good guy, and no one can tell him otherwise. I like that. As for the rest of the other characters, they're nothing special. But that's okay. Sai is a really cool character you'll love to see on screen, and to boot he isn't a sissy wimp like a lot of other harem protagonists!
Enjoyment: 7/10
Even with so many things working against this anime, there are so many moments where you'll seriously just laugh. I enjoyed a great portion of this anime. The only problem I really had was with the plot. But that's definitely okay! I remembered that it was a harem anime and anyone who forgets this key factor should try to understand that a little bit of mindless humor is good once in a while.
Overall: 6/10
Ichiban is not a memorable anime. It really has nothing worth remembering (except Peterhausen). It just follows a long line of other harem anime into oblivion. But hey, it's only 12 episodes, and it's a fun little anime. I'd say it's worth recommending, but not worth ask feedback on. The response you'll get will be "Well... It was a harem anime... I liked 'X female'" so on and etc.
But that's okay. Because it IS a harem anime and expecting anything more than that is just plain craziness. read more
Recommendations
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Both have a supernatural school setting with plenty of cute girls and fan service.
Both titles are ecchi-harem type and contain characters with magic powers.
Magical harem hijinks at a school where there's a surprising lack of supervision.
They are almost completely the same...The characters are quite similiar as well, although Akuto in Ichiban seems to be more powerful. There are the main female protagonists, Keena and Moka who both seem fun-spirited and don't seem to worry too much. Kurumu or Ruby from Rosario could stand for Etou in Ichiban. They are both sexy, daring and almost act evil-like but infact, harmless. Junko from Ichiban is most like the vampire side of Moka in Rosario, because they are both strong-willed and serious. Mizore from Rosario is most like Korone from Ichiban. They rarely show emotions and are simple and talk similiar. Yukari from Rosario's personality is like Hiroshi (guy) from Ichiban. They are both brave and shy, also look very baby-ish like. Both animes are harem, but Rosario seems to have more comedy and the anime has all the characters scheming things to get the male protagonist. Ichiban focuses a lot more on the plot, and it only has one season so the anime is a bit rushed, but its more serious too. They both are on the same level of ecchi-ness, with characters that have larger breasts and all that. (:
Magic and mosters along with harem and ecchi. Simple as that.
They are both ecchi's set in a supernatural school. Ichiban being a school of magic, and Rosario being a school for monsters. Both have a bit of romance and comedy throughout.
i dunno, they are both cool in kinda same way
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Main characters are males, powerful and sometimes a bit of a doormat (gullible, easily manipulated by women etc). Both possess some sort of power and both are the next successors of a role (demon king, Gandalfr). Tons of fan service and whatnot as well as embarrassing moments mostly relating to the girls in the story. Side characters have big boobs.
Magic academy setting looks a little familiar.
Magic and school settings with male protagonists that don't feel comfortable with their surroundings.
The animes share almost all genres.
Both take place at a magical academy and follow the usual harem plots, mixed in with some prophecy stuff and whatnot.
The animes have simular atmosphere: magical school, heroes with magical powers. The protagonist of both is a male character who stands from the crowd. There are also some female characters who like the pratagonist. But in Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou it has more erotical aspects.
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Opening Theme"REALOVE:REALIFE" by Sphere
Ending Theme"Everyday sunshine line!" by Natsuko Aso
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